HT I have a better way for arena transitions.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Yeah.  And a random number of the guys they can see disappear.  Sometimes it's all the friendlies, sometimes it's all the enemy.  The point is, you would never be able to trust what you're seeing, as it could change at any moment.  If you don't see that as being completely abhorrent for gameplay, then I don't know what to say to you.

I don't know what's blocking your mind. First of all you can't trust ANYTHING you see even now! People can have an involuntary disco at any given moment. So can you.

Second of all the arena is not going to split all the time. It will happen once or twice in 24 hours most likely. You get more network related warps than that!

I meant friendly goon.  They were just denied their attaboys and the pleasure of seeing the base change over to their country  Now in their arena, the ack that goon was just going to beat coming back up has now popped, and they've lost momentum.

Ack is not going to pop any more than it was going to pop on the running copy with same exact state of war. So your goon just had a disco big deal never happened before?

Citation please.  What Ack-Ack said.

I'm speaking to 1 squad through TS and 3 squads through common finnish vox. Every day when off hours shuts down only from my friends 3-4 quit playing at the very moment. Sometimes me included. You hear 'see ya' 'can't bother to log on anymore' or 'I got blocked oh well cya later'.

You're completely ignoring the fact that the supposedly 'uninterrupted fight' you are having just completely changed.  You now have 0 enemy in front of you.  ...This is an 'uninterrupted fight'?

Compared to having to logoff to a totally different map and start from 0 again yeah that's pretty uninterrupted! You've never had an enemy disco in front of you?

Whatever your cutoff point, 75, 150, whatever.  That many people are never trying to change arenas at the same time?  I wish, oh how I wish I could get Hitech to post here how many people are hammering Orange when the arenas are split trying to get into it that aren't in a squad.  I would be willing to bet it's enough to cause your arena to want to split again.

Again you're not understanding the original text lol! Squads remain on same side = NO incentive to move. Both servers are equally populated = NO incentive to move anywhere. Tell me, what would make all those people to switch servers when nothing is different on other side?

You've just given them the incentive.  The entire battle they were in just completely changed, either putting them at a sudden disadvantage, or suddenly giving them a massive numbers advantage that killed the fight because there aren't any interested enemy now that they've got a horde in the area.  They just got shot down because half their friendlies disappeared.

OMG the enemy will have 50% removed too unless and only unless they were all in same squad. And if that happens, your squad will also remain intact and can in fact be the winning party in the 'switch'. Will you change servers and leave your squadmates behind or move to another field instead to reorganize?

You really think quitting the whole game and starting from nothing is better than a temporary change in numbers? I'm lost from words.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Really?  I'd say plenty of people would leave over developmental stagnation.  Like, say, no new planes for two years while they implement the painful coding scheme you propose.

Are you intimately involved in software development to say such bold things? Where did you pull the 2 years? LOL!

You're full of it.  There'd be nobody left at that rate.  I don't have access to HTC's numbers, but I can absolutely say you're pulling that one out of thin air.

I said people quit playing, didn't say quit subscribing the very moment. But they will as discontent grows.

They're upset because they occasionally can't play with their squad in a social game.  So their solution to this pain is to... leave the game and the squad?  That's not a rational solution to that problem.

Regularly, not occasionally.

Play in LWOH, arena closes -> either quit early or risk getting left out of cap.
Play in LWO, get disco -> cap stops you from returning to your friends
Play in LWO, get a CTD -> cap stops you from returning to your friends

Double irritation from getting discoed, then not being able to return at all because of an artificial cap. Yeah, that eats on you.

[Wiley]

I don't know what's blocking your mind. First of all you can't trust ANYTHING you see even now! People can have an involuntary disco at any given moment. So can you.

Second of all the arena is not going to split all the time. It will happen once or twice in 24 hours most likely. You get more network related warps than that!

Dude...  You're basing all your arguments on 'If everything goes exactly right and people do what I want.'  I can see by this line of thought you have never, ever designed a system that was to be used by people.

Ack is not going to pop any more than it was going to pop on the running copy with same exact state of war. So your goon just had a disco big deal never happened before?

Yup.  It was frustrating.  Now you're proposing having this kind of thing happen by intent at least once a day, to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ARENA at the same moment.  Dude, that is not 'uninterrupted'.  That is not negligible.  It will mightily piss people off.  I have never seen an entire squad disappear in front of me.  I rarely see a disco.

I'm speaking to 1 squad through TS and 3 squads through common finnish vox. Every day when off hours shuts down only from my friends 3-4 quit playing at the very moment. Sometimes me included. You hear 'see ya' 'can't bother to log on anymore' or 'I got blocked oh well cya later'.

3-4 of you?  Oh.  The other 2-300 people who log back in and go about their business apparently disagree.

Again you're not understanding the original text lol! Squads remain on same side = NO incentive to move.

Wrong.  The entire enemy force they were heading toward just disappeared.  Why is that NOT an incentive to move?

Both servers are equally populated = NO incentive to move anywhere. Tell me, what would make all those people to switch servers when nothing is different on other side?

The other server says 'Orange' beside it, for starters.  Again, the entire enemy force you were just engaged with just vanished.  How is that not an incentive to move?

OMG the enemy will have 50% removed too unless and only unless they were all in same squad. And if that happens, your squad will also remain intact and can in fact be the winning party in the 'switch'. Will you change servers and leave your squadmates behind or move to another field instead to reorganize?

You really think quitting the whole game and starting from nothing is better than a temporary change in numbers? I'm lost from words.

Yes, because once you're in that arena, things aren't going to drastically change at random.

Wiley.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

So you want the same old stale maps on both arenas after the split?
(Yet another complaint about the split, not mine)

Nothing stops people from winning the war regardless of the fact. Unlike now that maps get stuck when they are forcefully closed.

Your squad is in an arena "with no action". Or, the other half of your friends are in a different arena?
(more complaints, not mine)

Again shows you're not even reading what you're complaining about. How can two equally big servers have one side without action?

A group of individuals with free will to get together where they can get together but choose not to? Whose fault is that?

ROFL you're funny. I bet you're the first one always to populate the empty server aren't you? OMG why not? By your own admission there's no reason to go to the empty side - unless you're bish and love to milkrun.

The "I can't fly with my squad" has to be the most ridiculous whine there is. A squad can fly together if they choose to.

wrongway

Your feebly based attempts of arguments give more reason for ridicule. A squad that's already playing on the max capped field can't be expected to quit what they're doing and switch sides over 1 or 2 members. Get a grip.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Dude...  You're basing all your arguments on 'If everything goes exactly right and people do what I want.'  I can see by this line of thought you have never, ever designed a system that was to be used by people.

LOL quite the contrary I'm afraid. You fail to picture the overall flow of play and nitpick on meaningless details. You're stating flabbergastingly exaggerated things like 'couldn't trust anything I see anymore' based on 1 microsecond event once a day.

Yup.  It was frustrating.  Now you're proposing having this kind of thing happen by intent at least once a day, to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE ARENA at the same moment.  Dude, that is not 'uninterrupted'.  That is not negligible.  It will mightily piss people off.  I have never seen an entire squad disappear in front of me.  I rarely see a disco.

And yet you see a whole server get shut down every day right now, have to change servers and start from literally nothing waiting 20-30 minutes for the whole war to start over again and thats somehow better? Mmmkay. I'm even leaving the getting left out part there

3-4 of you?  Oh.  The other 2-300 people who log back in and go about their business apparently disagree.

That 3-4 is about 20% of the people typically logged on from my squad at that time. You're AGAIN failing to see the big picture over small detail which you hang on - this time not understanding it's not only my squad that it's happening on.

Wrong.  The entire enemy force they were heading toward just disappeared.  Why is that NOT an incentive to move?

Because a) it will not disappear entirely and b) situation is no different on the other side.

The other server says 'Orange' beside it, for starters.  Again, the entire enemy force you were just engaged with just vanished.  How is that not an incentive to move?

Again, read the above. You'd have to be extremely unlucky to fight only 1 squad at that time.

Yes, because once you're in that arena, things aren't going to drastically change at random.

LOL! I mean I really LOL now. You say random to an event that's going to happen VERY rarely. You say drastic to an event that's similar to every day occasional network hiccup from player front end.

You prefer to have to quit playing for some time, log back on and wait for dozens of minutes to arena to repopulate and war get going again. You prefer to get occasionally blocked from joining the same server with your friends.

And you don't call THAT drastic?  

Players disappearing is a come and go once event. Getting left out of server due to cap is rest of the day event that will continue to get you every time you log off and want to come back - even if you manage to get in at first.

[Citabria]

it might be keeping up with the joneses but what ive described is done often in other games. phasing, instancing zoning etc etc its very common.

matter of fact this whole server shut down thing takes the 24/7 war attraction and tosses it out the window because it isnt 1 war 24/7 its 3 wars going 12/7. this affects people who run bombers more than any other group. it also affects people streaking (ie rearming and seeing how long they can survive in one plane)

HTC added a b29 and got me interested in the bomber game and the bomber game due to its long missions deep behind enemy territory has problems with arena shutdowns that have to be planend for by not flying bombers when an arena reset is and hour or less away.

[AWwrgwy]

Your feebly based attempts of arguments give more reason for ridicule. A squad that's already playing on the max capped field can't be expected to quit what they're doing and switch sides over 1 or 2 members. Get a grip.

Why not?

Of course flying with the squad isn't that important.

I mean, that is the whine, right? Flying with the squad? Or is it, "we're doing something and can't stop"?



wrongway

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Why not?

Of course flying with the squad isn't that important.

I mean, that is the whine, right? Flying with the squad? Or is it, "we're doing something and can't stop"?

wrongway

Stop digging that hole for yourself, please lol. If you fail to see how the group can be important for the individual but the individual is not important for the group I guess you have a lot to learn still.

I want to see your squad moving where ever you happen to be at a given moment. Especially when that side happens to be empty.

[AWwrgwy]

Stop digging that hole for yourself, please lol. If you fail to see how the group can be important for the individual but the individual is not important for the group I guess you have a lot to learn still.

I want to see your squad moving where ever you happen to be at a given moment. Especially when that side happens to be empty.

I'm sure they would if I asked.

Obviously yours won't.

 

Would you move for a squaddie?


wrongway

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I'm sure they would if I asked.

Obviously yours won't.

 

Would you move for a squaddie?


wrongway

I have a suggestion then. Next time the large arena gets capped you and your entire squad will move to the empty arena so I can get in with my friends. Deal? I see it's not a problem for YOU Sir <S> your help is greatly appreciated!

[Wiley]

LOL quite the contrary I'm afraid. You fail to picture the overall flow of play and nitpick on meaningless details. You're stating flabbergastingly exaggerated things like 'couldn't trust anything I see anymore' based on 1 microsecond event once a day.

Ok, I'm starting to believe you're being deliberately obtuse here.

First of all, you're assuming that once 400 people appear and the arena splits, they're all going to stay where you put them.  Why would they, when the fight they were just in the middle of broke up?

I'm going to keep this simple for illustration's sake.  First of all, let's give you the (HIGHLY unlikely) scenario that numbers are evenly distributed over the three chess pieces.  Let's also say it's edit:(300 player max, splits into 100 and 100 and 100).  The actual values don't really matter, double the scale to your 400, double everything.

Let's say you've got 3 fights going on.
Arena 1:
Fight A:
75 Bish vs 25 Rooks.  The Bish are conga lining trying to take a field.  The rooks have 25 guys interested in defending it.  It's basically stalemated because the Bish are trickling in, and the Rooks are having a good day.  The Rook forces are comprised of 3 squads.

Fight B:
75 Rooks vs 50 Knights.  "Pointless" furball going on, much fun being had by all.

Fight C:
50 Knights vs the Bish auto ack.  The other 25 Bish are afk in tower or running around porking undefended ords, whatever.

The arena split occurs.  The arena drops 50% of the people from each country to go into the second arena.

Now you've got:

Arena 1 Fight A: 38 Bish vs 25 Rooks who were holding their own against the Bish with double the numbers.
Arena 2 Fight A: 37 Bish vs 0 Rooks because those 3 squads were selected to stay in the first arena.  Are the Bish having fun now?

Arena 1 Fight B: 25 Rooks vs 25 Knights.  It's now become an even battle, hooray.
Arena 2 Fight B: 50 Rooks vs 25 Knights.  Relative odds against the 25 knights have now doubled.  They get schwacked and lose interest due to being outnumbered.

Arena 1 Fight C: 25 Knights vs the Bish Auto ack.
Arena 2 Fight C: 25 Knights vs the Bish Auto ack.

Now, with those players seeing this, let's see who all is still happy.  Fight A in Arena 1 is still going on ok  Rooks are holding their own.  Fight B in Arena 1 is dead even, should be a good fight.  Both Arenas have people continuing on in Fight C against the other country's auto ack.

Now let's look at Arena 2.  Fight A has been completely killed, 37 Bish are going to want to get back to 'the good arena' to get back to the fun fight they were having.  Fight B just got shut down because the Knights were overrun, didn't want to up into a vulch, and want back into the first arena where the good fight was.  Half the Rooks are now bored because they're not in the mood to fight undefended, they also want back into Arena 1.

So, they log back into Arena 1.  Yes, I know, 'They wouldn't do that.'  Under the scenario I've just outlined, why the heck wouldn't they?  They were having fun where they were, the situation changed and killed their fight.  The cure for that is to get back to the 'good arena' in their minds.

So now we have:

Arena 1 Fight A: 75 Bish vs 25 Rooks
Arena 2 Fight A: 0 Bish vs 0 Rooks

Arena 1 Fight B: 50 Rooks vs 50 Knights
Arena 2 Fight B: 25 Rooks vs 0 Knights

Arena 1 Fight C: 25 Knights vs the Bish Auto ack, 12 Bish doing their own thing
Arena 2 Fight C: 25 Knights vs the Bish Auto ack, 13 Bish doing their own thing

And now it's after suppertime, 75 more people log into Arena 1.

Time for another split, yeah?    That took less than an hour, and already we're going to divide arena 1 up again?  And this is 'uninterrupted gameplay'...

And that's assuming no side outnumbers the other.  An outnumbered side getting broken up further is just going to be, frankly, completely unacceptable.

And yet you see a whole server get shut down every day right now, have to change servers and start from literally nothing waiting 20-30 minutes for the whole war to start over again and thats somehow better? Mmmkay. I'm even leaving the getting left out part there

That 3-4 is about 20% of the people typically logged on from my squad at that time. You're AGAIN failing to see the big picture over small detail which you hang on - this time not understanding it's not only my squad that it's happening on.

Dude, you're the one not looking at the overall effect, not me.

Because a) it will not disappear entirely and b) situation is no different on the other side.

Again, read the above. You'd have to be extremely unlucky to fight only 1 squad at that time.

Squads tend to fight in the same area.  If a squad is working an area, they're all going to disappear at once.

LOL! I mean I really LOL now. You say random to an event that's going to happen VERY rarely. You say drastic to an event that's similar to every day occasional network hiccup from player front end.

I've just illustrated that there is precisely NOTHING stopping it from happening repeatedly.  You're assuming every best case scenario possible.  That won't happen.

You prefer to have to quit playing for some time, log back on and wait for dozens of minutes to arena to repopulate and war get going again. You prefer to get occasionally blocked from joining the same server with your friends.

And you don't call THAT drastic?  

It's a damn sight simpler than your solution, and a lot more controllable by the players.

Players disappearing is a come and go once event.

ONLY assuming they stay where they're put.  That is laughably optimistic.

Getting left out of server due to cap is rest of the day event that will continue to get you every time you log off and want to come back - even if you manage to get in at first.

No it isn't.  I've never been locked out of Orange for more than 20 minutes.

Wiley.

[Dead Man Flying]

Are you intimately involved in software development to say such bold things? Where did you pull the 2 years? LOL!

I made it up, just like you did with the magical dozens of people who quit AH every single day.  I bet I'm closer to right than you are.

I said people quit playing, didn't say quit subscribing the very moment. But they will as discontent grows.

HiTech himself said that arena splitting increased subscriptions.  Clearly he doesn't have access to the same numbers you do, or he'd no doubt change his tune.

Double irritation from getting discoed, then not being able to return at all because of an artificial cap. Yeah, that eats on you.

It no doubt sucks, but it's not enough for you to quit subscribing.  Or, apparently, for most people to quit subscribing.  Can it be better?  Possibly, and I'm sure HTC is considering alternatives that won't require months (or years) of manpower to implement.  I think many here exaggerate the negatives of the arena split.  The idea that someone would simply quit the game and a squad full of friends because they occasionally can't fly with their squad full of friends is laughable and irrational.

Speaking of laughable, you can stop with the lolspam every time you respond to someone.  Try a post without it.  I dare you.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Time for another split, yeah?    That took less than an hour, and already we're going to divide arena 1 up again?  And this is 'uninterrupted gameplay'...

A split would only happen when total number is at 400 or more. You're clinging on worst case scenario once in a million issues that will never in reality happen. You have to think of better arguments than that.

And that's assuming no side outnumbers the other.  An outnumbered side getting broken up further is just going to be, frankly, completely unacceptable.

All sides get equally broken up, nothing will change.

Dude, you're the one not looking at the overall effect, not me.

I'm sorry, no. You're totally clinging to every negative aspect you can think of and fail to see the huge benefit.

Squads tend to fight in the same area.  If a squad is working an area, they're all going to disappear at once.

True and this would be a problem indeed if there was 100 player squads. Now you see a local change that's temporary at most. Arena is like a sea - where ever a hole is formed it's soon filled with new players.

I've just illustrated that there is precisely NOTHING stopping it from happening repeatedly.  You're assuming every best case scenario possible.  That won't happen.

I'm sorry but once you have two practically equal servers nobody will have any reason to switch to specifically either side. Furthermore the fact that your entire squad now resides on the new side will 99.999% surely keep everyone there. If a squad decides to change to the other similar side, it's a testament to their lack of intellect, nothing else lol!

It's a damn sight simpler than your solution, and a lot more controllable by the players.

It's current implementation has created 100 pages of discussion already. Players are anything but indifferent to the daily shutdowns and being booted from full servers only to find out they cant return anymore.

ONLY assuming they stay where they're put.  That is laughably optimistic.

What's laughable is your false assumption that large amounts of people would for some imaginary reason want to switch sides when they see no difference in the new or old side after the split.

No it isn't.  I've never been locked out of Orange for more than 20 minutes.

If your idea of fun is to keep logging off and on for 20 minutes it's your problem. Most people quit before wasting their time like that.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I made it up, just like you did with the magical dozens of people who quit AH every single day.  I bet I'm closer to right than you are.

Trust me, your not

HiTech himself said that arena splitting increased subscriptions.  Clearly he doesn't have access to the same numbers you do, or he'd no doubt change his tune.

HiTech if anyone knows that the split fixed one problem but created another. It's a temporary fix.

It no doubt sucks, but it's not enough for you to quit subscribing. 

Are you sure? I wouldn't be.

Speaking of laughable, you can stop with the lolspam every time you respond to someone.  Try a post without it.  I dare you.

LOL! No way dude.

[Dead Man Flying]

Trust me, your not

I'm still waiting for a source for your numbers.  Until then, it's just hot air meant to bolster your clearly biased point of view.  Well you know what I heard?  I heard that after the arena split, Aces High was gaining literally hundreds of subscribers per day who more than offset the losses from the arena split.  True story!

HiTech if anyone knows that the split fixed one problem but created another. It's a temporary fix.

Created what problem?  Is this a show stopping problem?  Is this a problem that HTC can only address with convoluted, complicated "pain?"  Or would something more elegant (and cheap) work?  Realize that any solution to any problem will make someone unhappy.  It's just that in this case, the unhappy person is you.

Are you sure? I wouldn't be.

By all means, prove me wrong.

LOL! No way dude.

Way.